WARNING!! the following may cause depression

[joelb]

Monday morning this was a stable reef with 9 fish, 10+ shrimp, and life. today it is ghost ocean. 6/25/2008
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02198.jpg

a dying rose and a sad clown
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02188.jpg

Yellow Tang 1 RIP
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02196.jpg

Yellow Tang 2 RIP
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02186.jpg

a dying reef
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02196.jpg

This was once a thriving colony of neon GSP and now is just covered in brown algae
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02191.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02195.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02184.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/DSC02194.jpg

RIP:what_smile:

[joelb]

this was the reef last month
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii108/joelb69/175%20gallon%20reef/DSC01794.jpg

[mama]

WHAT HAPPENED!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[envy]

what happend were you away for those days???

[envy]

whats that stuff in the first pic that is not there in the last. did you add some thing like more rock or move things around???

[Shawnanthony]

yea WHAT HAPPENED???? THATS SO SAD!!!!

[joelb]

i was here. over the weekend i added the funny looking foam structure that you see, i let everything dry for 24 hours and monday i noticed a large fish in the in the overflow box but everything else looked normal. tuesday morning nothing opened up and the clams looked sick. felipe had my back and took the clams, some sps that i had recently purchased, my favorite fish and some nearly dead candy cane (RIP in advance). then today, i think its too late.

[joelb]

felipe noticed what he described as ph burns on the fish and the ph was off but i was wondering if there is a way to test for something more specific. that was a fast crash.

[RayAllen]

Wow, bummer. Maybe 24hours wasnt a long enough curing time for the foam.

[dustint21]

Man that is sad! Thats 2 great tanks this week! Sorry to hear about your lose! I thought about trying the foam, so far i am glad i have stayed away from it!! Good luck!!

[envy]

I thought about trying the foam, so far i am glad i have stayed away from it!!
same here

and it might of not been enough curing time for the foam. have you tested your water yet

[clone]

OMG dude thats sad.
sorry for all your lost,man that tank was thriving.

[tony]

whoah, that stinks!!!

good luck recovering everything!!!

[joelb]

i like the foam and i am glad i did it but i don't think it was the foam. i put the foam in there about 2 weeks ago but over this last weekend i drained it and added silicone to secure it perminently. so could be the silicone or the combination of about 5 things, who knows.
on the bright side, i did get to finally plumb in the chiller, add another vortech pump, more than double the sand bed, and pick up 2 more giesemanns. now all im waiting for is the dc8 and a new ph probe for the ac3 so i can turn on the reactors.

[moneytank]

what kind of silicone?
If the foam was added about two weeks ago, I doubt that was it. I have the foam in my tank with no problems. Not that that helps your situation, but it might help to narrow it down.
By the way, the first thing I noticed was the foam and how good it looked.

[alexdmg]

Sorry for your loss...
What kind of foam was it? What does the water tests show?

[joelb]

thanks, the foam is called great stuff. felipe tested for ph, he just eye balled it and singled that out and the test confirmed it. i have the aqua controller at my house tank and am going to bring it to this one as soon as the new probe comes in but all that reads is ph, ora, and temp. i guess i can take it to a local store and test it.

[ErikH]

OMG!!!!!!!! :(

That is terrible man.

[subsailor]

Sorry about your losses

[aquasport24]

Man that's sucks. What was your PH read when this happen? and what is the normal PH before? You may wnat to run carbon and water change for awhile and then test,test,test and place a mean damsel in there to test the water.

[SoLiD]

Bummer :cry_smile:
I'm sorry. :(

[JordanJ]

:thumbs_down: Sorry to hear that. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

[Texreefer]

sorry to hear this Joel.. I can say that if the foam cured for 24 hours there is no way the foam caused this.. however the fresh silicon may have.. hope you figure it out

[beareef19]

silicone takes 10 days to completely cure to its shore strength, shore is a term used to determine how hard it gets , during this time it will release the chemicals that are in it, one of them is acetle (sp) alcohol, that is the funny smell that silicone has
Barry.

[crossxfire2]

Aww man, I can't believe it. I am very sorry!

[mattymalcolm]

sorry to here about your loss.

[alton]

Tough loss, in the older pictures it looks like you had quite a bit of live rock and when you added the foam only a little live rock? It could be when you removed the liverock you removed your bio load? We use to have this problem with under gravel filters in the old days. Tank would be doing great, then we would stir up the crushed coral bed killing off our beneficial bacteria, then would come the dreaded PH crash.

[papijames]

Man I feel bad for your lost. I've never seen your tank in person but usually see people write good things in here how nice it looked. I think this is the only hobby where we're all prepared for the unexpected. Hopefully we can all help you get your tank in operation

[sly fox]

sorry mate :(

[copperband]

sorry for your losses i remember when i had my 30 gallon i had so many problems. hopefully your tank has a quick recovery!

[wesheltonj]

Joel, Sorry for your loss, that was a great tank. Has any of it recovered?

[chrismunn]

wow man, what a bummer. +1 on the silicone leaching harmfull chemicals into the water. it does take quite a bit for that stuff to fully cure, and before it has cured its pretty potent stuff...

was there anything else that you had done to the tank that you think may have contributed to the crash, or was it just the addition of foam and silicone?

[joelb]

the clams, rose bta, the flower pot, the new sps, and some polyps that i put in different tanks are hanging in there but now i see that that can change from one moment to the next. the crash could also have something to do with the blue bioballs being moved around but who knows. i have done 2 40 gallon water changes but this brown algae (the color of a dirty penny) is growing out of control.

[ErikH]

sounds like it's going through it's regular cycle. Some hermits and snails should aid in the clean up area....